Dimly-lit environment, furnishings that date again not less than a few a long time, and the cream-coloured coating on the pillars and partitions don’t give away the storied historical past of the Tamil Union Cricket and Athletic Membership.
Apart from an Ilaiyaraaja melody from the Eighties that performs softly within the background, there isn’t any ear-splitting music or noise even from the Oval Taverners bar that sits near the pavilion. The board on the entrance tells one all the pieces in regards to the membership, which was based in 1899 and occurred to be the place the place Sri Lanka took its baby- steps in cricket. However whichever facet one turns to, there’s a classic really feel to it, the place one might simply shut the eyes and movie Don Bradman strolling out to play and Sri Lanka tasting their first-ever Check win over India to even the match-winning fourth innings century by VVS Laxman in 2010.
For a membership that was as soon as the guts and soul of Sri Lankan cricket, it now resembles each bit a forgotten previous man, sitting alone, reminiscing the wonderful previous and the turbulent occasions it has withstood. After coming into existence after two golf equipment determined to merge collectively, it was P Saravanamuttu, after whom the stadium is called, who performed an instrumental position within the venue getting worldwide matches.
The membership has given Sri Lanka illustrious gamers equivalent to Tillakaratne Dilshan, Rangana Herath, Suranga Lakmal and Upul Chandana.
Photographs taken at Tamil Union Cricket and Athletic Membership which is at P Saravanamuttu Stadium, Colombo. (Image credit: Venkata Krishna B)
“It was a marshland after we purchased this land and Saravanamuttu took the problem and constructed a phenomenal floor and referred to as it the Colombo Oval. With folks thronging to observe cricket, he then constructed the stadium in addition to it supplied shelter and for a very long time, occurred to be the one floor in Sri Lanka that had any form of stadium,” Chandra Schaffter, a former first-class cricketer and ex-president of Tamil Union, tells The Indian Categorical.
Quickly, Vijay Service provider would deliver a crew from Mumbai to play a couple of matches on the Oval, the place Mahadevan Sathasivam, one of many early greats from the island, scored a century. And by the late Nineteen Thirties, the Colombo Oval would change into a pit cease for England and Australian groups every time they launched into an Ashes journey. “Each time the English travelled to Australia, they’d have a stopover in Colombo. They may arrive within the morning, play a match in the course of the day and return to the ship at night time. I performed the 1954 match. Identical with Australians, they’d cease over and do the identical. Each two years, we had a half-day or a one-day match,” Schaftter recollects.
Though Don Bradman didn’t play throughout his two visits to Colombo after being hit wicket for the one time in his profession right here in 1930, Schaftter remembers a story from the 1948 journey. “The Don got here again in the course of the lunch break and stated the pitch is 2 yards quick. Lot of them didn’t consider it however he made us measure it and turned out, he was really proper. One of many groundstaff had received the measurement unsuitable and we modified it immediately,” Schaftter says.
Don Bradman’s photograph taken at Tamil Union Cricket and Athletic Membership which is at P Saravanamuttu Stadium, Colombo. (Image credit: Venkata Krishna B)
Troubled occasions
Having established itself as a synonym for cricket within the island, within the Fifties, due to its affiliation with the Tamils, it might run into bother within the early years of ethnic warfare. In 1958, it misplaced one of many matches in opposition to England to the Sinhalese Sports activities Membership (SSC). “We had riots that 12 months and so they took the sport away from us. However with the amenities being restricted and no stadium in place, they got here again quickly after and it remained the house until the Khettarama (RPS) got here round in 1986,” he says.
It was the last decade when the stadium, now renamed P Saravanamuttu Oval, would run into a number of issues. In line with Schaftter, the civil warfare and the emergence of the LTTE meant the membership would see matches being moved on the eleventh hour to the SSC or RPS. And if that was not sufficient, within the 1983 riots, the membership was burnt down, with all of the data going up in smoke.
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“It was probably the most difficult time that each one of us went by means of. The riots ravaged the membership and no one thought we might rise once more. No one got here for assist and we understood that each one of us (membership members) needed to fund ourselves and get the bottom prepared. It took us three-four years to get again on observe, however even then we ensured that the stadium saved internet hosting matches in opposition to Australia and India,” Schaftter provides.
And in the identical interval with Gamini Dissanayake, the previous president of Sri Lanka, taking up as chairman of the Sri Lankan Cricket Board, the membership would result in an enormous change. From that includes solely Tamil gamers within the crew, it opened the doorways to all communities, making it an inclusive one.
“These days, until you have been a Tamil, you couldn’t play for Tamil Union. Identical with SSC, the place solely Sinhalese have been allowed to play. However Dissanayake wished to alter this and finish the discrimination. It was a superb determination and although members have been reluctant, all of us got here on board. And immediately, there’s not a single Tamil participant taking part in for us,” Schaffter says.